TBAY: BartyCrouchJr!Draco

[Eileen]

No: HPFGUIDX 54531

"Slumber party," says Pip opening up the door of the
Safe House, "is upstairs."

"I really can't join in," says Eileen reluctantly. "I
just thought I'd drop in to see if you have any
asbestos suits you could lend us."

"Of course," says Pip, a twinkle in her eye. "After
that last barbecue, Melody insisted we buy a few.
Melody, could you come down a moment?"

Melody appeared on the stairs in her night-wear.
"What's up, Pip?"

"Eileen wants to borrow some asbestos suits."

"In the hall closet," replies Melody. "I'd better get
them out myself. Some of the wards on the closet
produce pretty nasty results."

"Do you want a cup of tea?" asks Pip.

"If you don't mind."

"Sneeky won't," says Pip. 

"Oh, nice rabbit. New?"

"Don't touch it," Pip warns. "I'm fairly sure it won't
take to you."

Eileen pulls back her hand in the nick of time. 

"I've been listening in to your conversations with
Elkins," begins Pip. "You know who Barty Crouch Jr
reminds me of, when you talk about him, Eileen?
There's another character in the Wizarding World who
is always saying "My father" this and "my father"
that." And it's 
canonical that he was pretty intolerable when he first
came to Hogwarts."

Eileen looks ready to hug Pip, then thinks better of
it. Who knows what poiky objects Pip might have
concealed underneath her cloak? 

"I really hate Draco Malfoy," Eileen begins slowly.
"Whenever I mean to talk some sense about him, I end
up ranting. Do you know how many times I've started
writing out a post about Draco and Barty Jr. and had
to stop because it was turning into a rant against
rich, spoiled kids?"

"Lovely," says Pip. "Draco seems to have a pretty
serious case of father-worship, don't you think? And
how does his father respond? He complains about
Draco's  school marks in front of Mr Borgin."

"Hmmmm... well Crouch Sr. didn't complain about Barty
Jr's marks," says Eileen, just in case anyone would
think the worse of Crouch Sr. for the parallel. 

"He never gave his son any love!" cries Melody coming
into the room. "Barty Jr's marks were just adequate
for Crouch Sr., something he expected! Barty Jr. was
deprived! The asbestos suits aren't in the closet,
Pip."

"Try underneath the stairs."

"Barty Jr. deprived indeed!" huffs Eileen. "The
spoiled brat. I bet his father gave him everything: a
trampoline, a doll's house, a multi-coloured ink pen,
a sticker book, an Easy Bake Oven..."

Pip stares at Eileen.

"Well, maybe not exactly," says Eileen. "But I so
wanted an Easy Bake oven."

"Right. Whose father buys new brooms for the team he's
on?"

"Who gets sweets every day from home?" says Eileen
furiously. "And soda pop. And fruit salad cups. And
juice boxes. And really expensive delicatessan meat in
their sandwiches."

Pip realizing that the discussion has gone off track
again, decides to humour Eileen. 

"And you?"

"Peanut butter sandwiches. My mother could never see
anything wrong with peanut butter sandwiches," says
Eileen. "I would have killed for corned beef."

"So we have two very spoiled kids," says Pip. 

"The last remaining member of a pure-blood family as
old as any..." says Eileen thoughtfully.

"Right. Whose father complains to the Ministry when
he's injured? Whose father makes huge donations to
charities, which probably helped get Lucius off his
Death Eater charges. Draco has been brought up to
believe  that his family name and his family money can
get  him out of  *anything*."

Eileen stared. "Such as taking part in Death Eater
activities? Such as torturing people like the
Longbottoms?"

"Uh, huh," said Pip.

"Oh Good," says Eileen. 

"Is Miss Eileen wanting a spot of brandy in her tea?"
asks Sneeky, coming in with the tea tray.

"Thank you," says Eileen. "You know, there're quite a
few similarities between Draco and Barty Jr. They both
have pale skin and blond hair, for one thing. I was
quite gratified when someone suggested they might be
related a few weeks ago. It would open up a very
interesting subplot, it would, if Winky's misplaced
loyalties to the Crouch family ended up with Draco....
But that's neither here nor there. They both have
the... how shall I say this? - a talent for "cruel yet
accuration impressions?" 

Pip laughs. "And if Draco got caught, and Lucius
didn't 
want to get dragged in? If Draco didn't fit in with
his plans for ruling the WW? What do you think?
Another trial scene with another father saying 'You
are no son of mine?' "

"I like it very much," says Eileen. "Doesn't look good
for Draco, does it?"

"It depends on which parallel is being set up," says
Pip.

"What do you mean?"

"Whether the Malfoys will parallel the Crouches
because the father condemns the son, or whether the
parallel is that the son turns against the father."

"I think Draco's going to be redeemed," says Eileen in
a small voice.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Sympathetically redeemed. And ever so dead.
There's just things that don't make sense about his
character right now. I used to think it was sloppy
characterization, but the Barty Jr. parallel is too
neat to be an accident. I wonder if Draco will be
finding his father "disappointing." After all, isn't
Lucius playing the same game with Draco that Crouch
Sr. played with his son? It's dangerous to pretend
you're a fanatic when you're really an opportunistic
hypocrite."

"You really don't like Lucius Malfoy, do you?"

"I've heard over and over again that Draco's big
moment
will be when he realizes that Lucius is devoted to
Voldemort over his family, that his father is just a
slave of Voldemort, but I'm sensing that Draco's big
dramatic moment will be when he realizes that Lucius
is not the devoted slave of Voldemort he's pretended
to be, that the principles Draco has bought into were
largely a self-interested act on his father's part.
And then I shall be very interested to see what Draco
does."

Eileen swigs down the rest of the tea, and stands up.
"Oh, another Barty Jr. parallel," she says. "They're
both consummate screw-ups. They... ACCCK!" she cries
as she feels the touch of cold steel at her neck.

"I always keep my sword underneath the stairs," says
Melody coldly. "I think you'd best be taking these
asbestos suits and going."

Eileen


______________________________________________________________________ 
Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca